Seller delaying purchase and proposing an entry date two and a half months later!

[TeenWhisperer]

Hi all, we are selling and buying a house. We put an offer in for the house we want to buy four and a half weeks ago and since having it received a few days later, we have sold our own house and agreed a move in date with our buyer and are just pausing conclusion of missives as we wait for our purchase to complete. The seller is moving very slowly though. It's a holiday house they're selling so we thought it would all go through quickly. We expressed our intentions to move quickly at the time of our offer and our house sold in 2 days. We have everything in place to go, mortgage etc. They are dragging their feet and after a week have come back to our move in date proposal with one two and a half months later (perhaps!). What can I do here?

They want to spend the summer there ?

That's my impression. But it doesn't seem very fair! We've only every proposed moving very swiftly. We'd like to spend the summer there!

Did they agree to moving very swiftly though? Also their swiftly and your swiftly might be two very different timescales. To me, anything under 4 months is quick having had some very drawn out chains in the past.

Well, we're agreeing it now. The norm is 6-8 weeks from offer in the Scottish market. It just seems inconsiderate to expect 19 weeks. It doesn't work for us at all and no indication of this until now.

Also, there are no chains. It's a second property to them. They don't need to wait until they can move and our buyers are cash buyers.

Apologies, I hadn’t spotted this was Scotsnet, a completely different set up!

They are a*holes.

Speak to your solicitor and ask them to counter propose a date one month earlier.

I dont know the Scottish system but can you set a time frame and make the sale contingent on that? Is the property listed anywhere like airbnb and if so can you see if they have bookings / are taking bookings?

Did your Offer specify an entry date or did it just say the entry date would be as mutually agreed

Split the summer time difference? You complete mid July?

I'm thinking they want to rent it out over the summer and take the cash rather than use it themselves.

They have offered late July as a possibility but not a specific date, so mid July wouldn’t seem like much of a compromise. All our communications have said we’re able to move quickly, including the wording around our offer but no date specifically was mentioned. I can’t find the house on Airbnb. I think they might just want to spend summer there themselves. We could move in the next week, so this is just an awful entry date proposal. If they insist on July I’ll need to discuss price.

What would a rental cost for the difference between your agreed date and end July?
Double that, and reduce the offer price by that plus storage and removal costs, or a move date of before X

Insist that if they want it over the summer then you’ll need the cost of an Airbnb in the area deducted from the cost.

we had this - elderly couple and basically the family didn’t want to help them move over summer holidays. Either wanted a 2 week completion or like 3 months away!
Played hard ball and lo and behold suddenly it could be done. Suddenly the 90 year old couple weren’t going on holiday to America for 8 weeks 😂

@UncharteredWaters Result! We could actually move in 2 weeks. I wish they'd offer us that!

@UncharteredWaters What did you do/say to convince them?

Of early entry was important to you you should have specified a date in your Offer
Without that the entry date is by mutual agreement
I suggest you instruct your solicitor to say the latest date you can accept is X and see what the response is

We're not asking for early entry. The standard in scotland is 6-8 weeks and they offered the earliest as 19 weeks. They are way out. We're just after standard entry!

They are CF. They put the house on the market to test the water and now have an offer they want to accept. If they want the summer in the house / to rent it out over the summer, they should have done that and put the place on the market once they were ready to sell.

I would play hard ball, say your offer was made in good faith of the property being available to buy. Say you’ll need to rent somewhere in the meantime (as don’t want to let your buyers down) will therefore be reducing the offer to cover all or part of the rent. Get some prices to give this weight.

Speak to the estate agent, they will not want to lose the commission.

You need to push back on this.

There is no such thing as a standard entry date in Scotland
Date of entry is by mutual agreement unless specified in the Offer

Is the property let to other holiday makers over the summer months ? I’d check that out